PHILADELPHIA – The Patrik Laine Show remains must-see TV, but the well is running a little dry for several of the other top guns on the Winnipeg Jets.

Although Laine was able to extend his point streak to 11 games by scoring his 40th of the season, it was all the offence the Jets could produce in a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday afternoon at Wells Fargo Arena.

While the Jets had a four-game winning streak snapped, the Flyers halted their own five-game losing skid.

“I’m not happy because we got the loss. Maybe (Sunday) I’ll be happier,” said Laine, who is up to 63 points in 68 games. “I can be proud of myself. That’s a great number. But right now, it doesn’t feel good.”

The Jets, who slipped to 41-18-9 on the season, continue a six-game road trip on Monday against the Washington Capitals.

Laine’s recent run has basically been absurd, 15 goals and 21 points in those 11 games.

Prior to the streak, Laine was sitting at 25 goals and looking like he was going to finish somewhere in the 40-45 range.

But thanks to the outburst, Laine moved into a tie for the Rocket Richard Trophy with Caps sniper Alex Ovechkin and now, 50 goals doesn’t seem all that far-fetched.

Through five games on this road trip, the Jets have scored 14 goals and Laine is responsible for nine of them, with linemates Nikolaj Ehlers and Paul Stastny adding one each.

That leaves three others came from Dustin Byfuglien and Ben Chiarot and winger Joel Armia.

The Jets are obviously missing some key pieces, but a balanced attack has been a key to their strong season and right now the Stastny line needs some additional support.

“To get that game, we need somebody to find the back of the net. We’ve got a few guys that it’s been a while (since they scored),” said Jets head coach Paul Maurice. “For the most part, the guys ended up playing as hard as they could. We had a few guys fight the puck a little bit and so did they. It was a tight game.”

Maurice quickly dismissed a query about Laine’s hot streak might be leading some players to believe he was simply going to take care of the scoring.

“I understand the question, don’t get me wrong. But the NHL doesn’t work like that,” said Maurice. “Nobody has ever said I feel better now, I don’t have to score because (Laine) will. We’ve got some different combinations and a different kind of hockey being played at this time of year. It’s a little harder to score and a little harder to get to those areas.

“We’ve got some other guys with 20-plus goals, other guys with 15 and we haven’t scored a lot. There’s a point in the game where you don’t need to (score). We’ve had the lead in four previous games. We’ve scored enough.”

The game-winning goal required video review, as it was ruled a save on the ice.

Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck made a strong push across and snared a rebound attempt from Andrew MacDonald out of the air.

After watching the video replay as the play continued on, eventually the NHL situation room ruled the puck had completely crossed the line, putting the Flyers up 2-0 at 8:01 of the second period.

“I thought I had it. I was all over it. My goalie movement was very nice and what I would do over and over again. When the buzzer went, it stinks, but I just thought they wanted a closer look,” said Hellebuyck, who finished with 33 saves. “I thought it was a save. Toronto really hasn’t been helping me out too much this year. I don’t know. I thought I had it. I felt it in my glove. I just took a look at it (on video) and it’s in by maybe a fraction of an inch.

“That’s a little unlucky. With the goalie anatomy, the glove is going to come back when you’re trying to hold onto the puck. It stinks, but we’ve got to live with it.”

Maurice said he didn’t need a signal from the off-ice officials to realize the Flyers had extended the lead.

“I knew it was a goal before the buzzer went off,” said Maurice. “Offside, I can’t (expletive) get. Those I get.”

There had been plenty of examples of frustration shown by the Jets throughout the course of the game.

After taking the first two minor penalties of the contest, the Jets had three rather futile power plays before finally cashing in on the fourth to make it a one-goal game.

“Both teams power plays were grotesque, until we scored,” said Maurice. “Hang on, let’s be positive. Both of these penalty kills were outstanding, until we scored.”

Flyers goalie Petr Mrazek made 27 saves in the contest, picking up his fourth win since being acquired from the Detroit Red Wings after Brian Elliott and Michal Neuvirth went down with injuries.

Claude Giroux had the other goal for the Flyers and it came with an extra attacker as Jets defenceman Tyler Myers was going to be given a slashing minor on the play.

Winnipegger Nolan Patrick chipped in an assist for the Flyers as he continued his strong stretch of hockey.

Patrick has five goals and 10 points during the past 12 games.

Following a slow start, the second overall pick in the 2017 NHL Draft, is up to 10 goals and 23 points in 60 games.

As for the Jets, they are long past the days of moral victories – though it can’t be overlooked that on a day when they didn’t have their best effort, this still came down to a one-shot game.

Only this time, there was no furious comeback with the goaltender out.

“We’ve been in this situation a lot. We’ve proven ourselves here,” said Hellebuyck. “We all believed, right until the end. It’s just one of those (games) we didn’t get it. If I was a betting man, I’d say the majority of the time we do get that equalizer. We played pretty hard.

“I liked my game and I liked our team game. We were doing a lot of good things. We’ve got to put this one behind us and continue winning. We’re not in the playoffs yet and we need to keep building toward it.”

This Week's Flyers

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